Codasip GmbH, the leading supplier of RISC-V® embedded processor IP, announced today that it has raised $10M in a Series A investment round led by private equity firms Ventech Capital of Paris, France, Shenzhen Capital Group Co., Ltd. of Shenzhen, China, Paua Ventures of Berlin, Germany, and strategic investor Western Digital, following the initial investment led by Credo Ventures of Prague, Czech Republic.

This investment will allow Codasip to grow its global sales and support team while expanding its product development efforts to bring best-in-class RISC-V processor intellectual property and optimization tools to customers around the world.

“The RISC-V movement is growing at a rapid pace and transitioning from an era of raising awareness to an era of customer adoption,” stated Christian Claussen, General Partner of Ventech Capital and a board member of Codasip. “Codasip have the tools and expertise developed over the last decade to create a broad portfolio of licensable RISC-V processors and bring them to market. Ventech Capital is confident that Codasip will continue to provide innovative products to the semiconductor industry.”

Martin Fink, Chief Technology Officer at Western Digital, added: “Western Digital is focused on the next generation of innovation to enable new classes of applications like machine learning, AI, and analytics to deliver the possibilities of data. RISC-V offers a platform for innovation unshackled from the proprietary interface of the past, and this freedom allows us to optimize special-purpose computing capabilities targeted at big data and fast data applications.”

Karel Masařík, Codasip’s founder and CEO, said: “We are honored to welcome aboard this global syndicate of investors who share Codasip’s vision of bringing innovative RISC-V-based processors and optimization tools to the world, and we appreciate the continued dedication, commitment, and support of our earlier investors and the current team.”

Codasip aims to have the most comprehensive portfolio of RISC-V processor technology in the industry. Codasip Studio allows for rapid processor development and helps customers differentiate their products through processor IP that is tailored to their design and software requirements, and does so with less cost and risk than using general-purpose offerings. Studio dramatically simplifies the process of optimizing a processor, delivers enormous performance improvement to customers, and allows them to build their own unique RISC-V core that is just right for their application

Paris, February 7, 2018 – Founded in 2014 in Paris by Mathieu Azorin, CEO and Elie Aboucaya, COO (both formerly with Dentsu-Aegis and WPP), the Storetail software suite is specialized in driving customer visits through e-commerce sites.

Storetail technology is unique on the market to allow a brand or an on-line retailer to recreate the physical in-store customer experience on an e-commerce site. This includes highlighting products and sales promotions, while specifically targeting those consumers who might be attracted by a given offer (cf. example p. 2). The solution provides increased visibility for advertised brands, a source of monetizing for stores and a personalized commercial experience for consumers.

Because it is flexible, the Storetail suite can also be used by retailers for their own promotions and is already available to advertisers on a self-service basis.

Storetail had raised €2 M in 2016 from ISAI and leading Business Angels[1]. The start-up operates in France, Spain, Portugal, and the UK, with 60 employees.

This new round of financing will serve to bolster the technical and commercial teams while helping to develop new product offers and to enter new markets, especially in Europe and North America.

Retailing is fighting on a new front, the battles are on-line and involve the triad of choice-price-service. Service has become primordial to win and retain clients. Thanks to Storetail technology, e-commerce sites can derive new revenue streams, through commercial activities, and invest these in customer services.

Elie Aboucaya, COO and co-founder of Storetail, adds: “Our platform is totally “plug & play” for online retailers. It is based on real-time analyses of multiple data to offer the most efficient Online Retail Media solutions. With increases in sales of up to + 600 %, and automated reporting through clear and comprehensive operational dashboards, ROI is directly measurable for the advertiser.”

Audrey Soussan, Managing Partner at Ventech, comments: “Ventech, which supports a number of players in the Adtech/Martech space, was impressed by the Storetail platform. We are convinced by its international potential and we are delighted to work along with this talented team.”

Jean-David Chamboredon, CEO of ISAI, concludes: “Recent events have highlighted the new stakes for retailers in the digital age. In this context, knowing how to drive on-line sales with the right operations through data mastery and being able to profit from new revenue streams through monetization to reinvest in services for clients and customers is a considerable advantage for retailers. The rapid growth of Storetail demonstrates the pertinence of its strategy.”

http://www.ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Picture1.png300400ventechadminhttp://ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/logo.pngventechadmin2018-02-07 18:15:372018-02-21 14:39:51Storetail closes €5m Series B round to expand in North America and to strengthen R&D team

mediarithmics is the first open and integrated European platform for Data Marketing (DMP, Cross DMP, DSP, DCO, marketing automation).

mediarithmics convinced more than 30 Digital Leaders in its first two years of commercial development.

mediarithmics was retained in July 2017 as a technology provider for the implementation of the Alliance Data Gravity project.

Paris, August 29, 2017 – After a first fundraising of 1.2 million euros realized with Jaïna Capital in 2013, mediarithmics announces a round of 3 million euros to develop internationally. This auction is entirely carried out by Ventech, a major player in venture capital investing in high-growth companies in the digital sector.

Created in 2013 by Stéphane Dugelay and the result of 3 years of R&D, mediarithmics offers an open, integrated and modular cloud technology allowing to simply orchestrate personalized marketing campaigns. The mediarithmics technology includes the Data Management Platform (DMP) for the collection and analysis of customer and prospect data, the Demand-Side Platform (DSP) module and the Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) module for A real-time customization of banner ads). Confirming that an integrated offer is more effective than a technology assembly, mediarithmics helps publishers and their advertising companies to better value their data assets. Mediarithmics also allows advertisers to collect customer and prospect data to script high-performance campaigns that can be activated in programmatic advertising, via emailing or directly on their site. Finally, mediarithmics technology makes it possible to build Data alliances between complementary players, each actor retaining full ownership of its Data assets and thus able to measure its contribution within an alliance. Mediarithmics has been selected as the technological partner of the Gravity project (alliance of fifteen media leaders, e-commerce and / or TV) to propose a targeting of French Internet users in a Brand-Safety environment. During its first two years of commercial development, mediarithmics has convinced more than thirty sector leaders, often among the most mature on their Data Marketing needs (BlaBlaCar, 3W Régie, Coca-Cola European Partners, Alliance Gravity, ShowRoomPrivé, Prisma Media, Altice Media …).

For Stéphane Dugelay, CEO of mediarithmics: “Our latest commercial successes, and even more the ROI that we have created for our first customers, have confirmed our initial: an integrated technology is needed to simply and efficiently carry out a personalized marketing based on. We are pleased to be able to offer our open platform developed in France in a market today strongly dominated by platforms and publishers of American technologies. The arrival of Ventech in our capital allows us to pursue our growth serenely by strengthening our technological leadership and by strengthening our sales teams. Thanks to its many successes, especially in Adtech, Ventech is a valuable ally to bring us advice and international openings. ”

As part of this fundraising campaign, Claire Houry, Managing Partner at Ventech, joins the Board of Mediarithmics: “mediarithmics brings a real technological breakthrough solution and positioning in a fast-paced Data Marketing market. Although it is difficult to arrive in a market dominated by the American actors, mediarithmics very quickly constituted an impressive client portfolio. From the first discussions with Stéphane Dugelay (CEO and Founder) and Grégoire Fremiot (VP Sales & Marketing), we quickly saw, in mediarithmics, a real potential to become a leading actor. We are particularly proud to support the team in their international expansion. ”

Mediarithmics will now accelerate its commercial development, especially with publishers and advertising agencies in major European countries (Germany, England, Spain, Italy …), and plans to strengthen its teams with a dozen recruitments (developers, consultants…).

About mediarithmics

Mediarithmics is the first truly open and integrated European Data Marketing platform (DMP, Cross DMP, DSP, automation marketing, COD). Mediarithmics allows advertisers to simply launch custom multichannel campaigns that seamlessly integrate programming. Mediarithmics also helps media publishers and their media to protect, structure and value their Data assets in new business models. The mediarithmics technology allows the formation of Data alliances between actors, respecting the full Data ownership of each party and their fair remuneration. After 3 years of R&D, mediarithmics has convinced over the last two years about thirty advertisers and publishers leaders in their sector.

Ventech, a major player in venture capital in Europe, invests in high-growth companies in the digital sector (big data, media, marketplaces, mobile, software and telecom infrastructures). Ventech has offices in Paris, Munich and Helsinki and has also been present in China since 2006 with a local team based in Shanghai which invests a dedicated fund and contributes to the development of European companies in Asia. With more than € 650M managed since 1998, Ventech has invested in more than 120 companies in Europe, China, Russia and the United States. Active portfolio includes prestigious companies such as Augure, Believe, Ogury, StickyADS.tv (acquired by Comcast), Vestiaire Collective, Webedia (acquired by Fimalac), or Withings (acquired by Nokia).

http://www.ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/mediarithmics-1.png300400ventechadminhttp://ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/logo.pngventechadmin2017-08-31 08:05:032017-08-31 09:07:52mediarithmics fuels its international development raising 3m€

Hospitality management firm Hostmaker has closed a £5m Series A funding round led by French venture capital fund Ventech and existing investors DN Capital.

Hostmaker, based in London and founded in 2014, is an Airbnb management company which assists Airbnb hosts with online listings, guest experience, and hotel-style housekeeping.

The firm says it will use the funds to strengthen its position in London, Paris, Rome, and Barcelona – credited with being four of the largest markets for Airbnb. Hostmaker says it supports more than 1,000 homestay hosts across these cities.

This latest investment takes Hostmaker’s total funding to £7.5m.

Nakul Sharma, founder and CEO of Hostmaker, said: “Our investors back our vision of creating a premium hospitality experience within the homestay segment that is seeing explosive growth. Regulatory changes in all cities have now made short-lets a category offering that is here to stay.

“Over the last few years, we have seen a fundamental change in how homeowners view their home as not just their private space but as a space to be shared, which allows them to monetize an asset and makes living in expensive European capitals more affordable.

“We are the only ones in our segment at the moment that is rapidly scaling internationally and capitalising on this opportunity for the homeowners by offering proprietary pricing technology, in-house interior design and a five-star trained operations team, all under one roof.”

Ventech is a Paris-based venture capital firm which currently supports fashion platform Vestiaire Collective and home cleaning service Helpling.

Alain Caffi, founder and managing partner of Ventech, said: “Hostmaker is the perfect enabler to push further the Airbnb revolution in a scalable and profitable way. The team has the professionalism to achieve its long-term vision of being an alternative to hotel groups in the 3 to 4 stars’ segment; this is game changing.”.

http://www.ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/hostmaker-min.jpg13652048ventechadminhttp://ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/logo.pngventechadmin2017-06-14 14:30:092017-08-21 08:31:04Hostmaker raises £5m Series A from Ventech

misterb&b, the largest gay hotelier in the world with 100,000 hosts in 135 countries, has closed a $8.5 million Series A funding round led by Berlin-based VC Project A and primarily France based VC Ventech. With the new funding push, misterb&b plans to expand its global operations, and to continue on the path to becoming the central platform for gay travel.

The idea for starting misterb&b was first conceived in 2013 after founder Matthieu Jost had a negative experience while traveling with his partner and didn’t feel welcome by his host. This was when he started to follow his vision of contributing to building a world where members of the LGBTQA community can travel safely and comfortably at an affordable price and bond with like-minded travellers within the community. The goal is to make misterb&b the global LGBTQA platform for traveling, connecting in real life and feeling welcome everywhere.

“While the sharing economy for short-term rentals has increased, it has been difficult for gay hosts and travellers to feel secure and welcome”, says misterb&b CEO Matthieu Jost. “We look forward to expanding our services backed by two strong investors, so even more members of the LGBTQA community can connect globally and feel safe and welcome anywhere they travel.”

misterb&b is a response to strong demands for collaborative tourism in the booming niche of global gay tourism, a $100B market. The gay market is also a premium segment, traveling twice as much as other travellers.

“With great dedication and a strong vision, the misterb&b founders have built an impressive platform in a very attractive global market”, says Anton Waitz, General Partner at Project A, who will be taking a seat on misterb&b’s board of directors. “We are excited to have misterb&b as the first company with roots in France joining our portfolio, and are looking forward to supporting them with our team of 100 operational experts.”

Jean Bourcereau, managing partner at Ventech, who will also be joining misterb&b’s board of directors, says: “The online travel industry is already generating massive business worldwide and innovation keeps on thriving in this sector. misterb&b’s early commercial traction and tremendous growth over the past two years have proven the huge value of their differentiated offer for both hosts and guests.”

About misterb&bFounded in 2014 by Matthieu Jost, Marc Dedonder, François de Landes and Chris Sinton, misterb&b is the world’s largest marketplace connecting like-minded travellers and hosts in the LGBT community. They are able to list, discover and book welcoming accommodations worldwide with 100,000 hosts in over 135 countries. misterb&b will further pursue its global approach to bringing gay men and women together in real-life experiences while expanding its operations in Paris, Los Angeles and Lima. misterb&b’s free app is available on iOS, Android and the web.

About Project AProject A is an operational VC that provides its ventures with capital, an extensive network and exclusive access to a wide range of operational expertise. The Berlin-based investor makes use of the €260M in assets under its management to back early-stage companies in the digital technology space. With its unique organizational structure featuring 100 operational experts, Project A offers its portfolio companies hands-on support in the areas of IT, Marketing & Brand Building, Business Intelligence, Sales and Recruiting. The portfolio includes companies such as Catawiki, WorldRemit, Tictail, Contorion, nu3, Lostmy.name and ZenMate. You can find out more about Project A at www.project-a.com and on our blog insights.project-a.com.

About VentechVentech, one of Europe’s leading venture capital firms, invests through offices in Paris, Munich and Helsinki into high-growth companies with activities in the digital economy (internet, media, e-commerce, mobile, software and communications infrastructures). In China, Ventech manages a dedicated regional fund with a team based in Shanghai, which also offers business development support in Asia for European portfolio companies. With more than 650M€ raised since 1998, Ventech has invested in over 120 companies in Europe, China, Russia and in the US. Current active investments in Europe include successful high growth companies such as Believe Digital, Curse (recently acquired by Amazon), Ogury, Picanova, Speexx, StickyADS.tv (recently acquired by Comcast), Vestiaire Collective, Webedia or Withings (recently acquired by Nokia).

http://www.ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/misterbb-background-1.jpg13352000ventechadminhttp://ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/logo.pngventechadmin2017-06-14 14:17:242017-08-21 08:31:15misterb&b, Largest Gay Hotelier in the World, Raises $8.5M in Series A Funding

French startup Talent.io is turning headhunting into a marketplace by connecting promising engineers with tech companies. The company just raised $8.8 million (€8 million) from existing investors Alven Capital and Ventech.

While Talent.io started with Paris, the company is now operating in other major European cities, such as Berlin and London. The startup acquired Webcrowd and Go Digital in order to do this.

Engineers sign up when they’re ready to get a new job. Talent.io is going to screen them to keep the most legit candidates. Then, tech companies receive an email every week with new candidates. Those companies can start a conversation with those candidates.

After a month, candidates who don’t find a new job are removed from the platform. Talent.io helps you find full-time employees, freelancers and even interns.

So far, Talent.io has attracted 2,000 tech companies, with most of them in Paris — 200 companies in London and 200 companies in Berlin rely on Talent.io for now. Around 25 percent of candidates find a new job thanks to the startup.

The selection process for candidates is probably the main differentiating factor. If tech companies trust Talent.io that they only select valuable candidates, then they’re going to use it again and again. While 4,500 people sign up every month, only 400 of them get selected. With today’s funding round, Talent.io wants to multiply these numbers by 10.

Recruiting startups are not my favorite kind of startups. It feels like they create more turnover and have too big an impact on the job market. And yet, to be fair, recruitment is a lucrative industry. Tech companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars every year on recruitment. And it’s clear that Talent.io plans to take advantage of that.

InterCloud (France), provider of a platform enabling enterprises to connect and take control of multiple cloud-based apps from different service providers, raised €10m in a Series B funding round from existing investors CapHorn Invest and Ventech and new investors Bpifrance, Hi Inov and SNCF Digital Ventures. The funds will be used to finance the development of its cloud delivery and cloud access platforms, expand its activities in Spain and launch its services in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and UK markets.

From last funding transaction in Mar-2017.

Founded in 2010, InterCloud through its platform connects companies to their cloud service providers. The company does so through its own cloud delivery network, which rents transfer capacity from internet service providers (ISPs). The platform allows organisations to migrate to cloud and provide cloud applications to their users worldwide. InterCloud also addresses the security, performance and flexibility challenges associated with outsourcing resources to the public cloud by allowing clients to choose through which cables and ISPs their data passes.

According to MarketsandMarkets, the multi cloud management market size is estimated to grow from $939.3m (€881.7m) in 2016 to $3.4bn (€3.2bn) by 2021, at a CAGR of 29.6%. A 2017 Forbesreport states that large enterprises are running 75% of their workloads on cloud platforms, with 43% in private cloud and 32% in public cloud. Small and medium businesses run 83% of their workloads on cloud platforms. The report also states that 85% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy today, up from 82% in 2016.

Competitors include US-based Cloudbolt, a cloud management platform that enables enterprise IT to operate as a cloud service provider; US-based Google Cloud Interconnect, which lets enterprises connect directly to its data centres; US-based Intercloud Systems (NASDAQ: ICLD), which offers cloud IT and cloud computing network solutions to the enterprise market; US-based RightScale, a cloud computing management solution for managing cloud infrastructure across multiple infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers; and US-based Scalr, an enterprise-grade cloud management platform which allows enterprises to achieve cost-effective, automated and standardised application deployments across multi-cloud environments.

London, 7th November 2016 – Freespee, the real time conversation cloud technology company, has secured €9.25 million in Series B funding in a round led by French venture capital firm Ventech SA, marking the latter’s first ever investment in a Nordic company. Joining as part of this investment round is growth debt provider Silicon Valley Bank, alongside existing investors in Freespee, Sunstone Capital and Inventure. The investment will be used to fuel product development and sees Ventech’s Tero Mennander join the Freespee board.

Freespee enables marketers to monitor, manage and personalise the experience of every customer conversation taking place through desktop web, mobile web and mobile apps. The company was founded by Swedish software engineers at the end of 2009, with offices in London, Paris, Barcelona and Uppsala, Sweden.

The new investment round will enable Freespee to accelerate the development of its industry-leading conversation cloud technology, which is used globally by brands such as Allianz, Lloyds, eBay, Bupa, Marriott Hotels and Peugeot. The company already manages millions of conversations every month across 20 countries using its innovative technology.

As part of the new investment round, Ventech Venture Partner, Tero Mennander, will join the board at Freespee. As head of the Ventech Helsinki office, Mennander leads the firm’s activity in the Nordics, and brings 25 years of experience in the technology sector across various roles on the entrepreneurial, as well as the investors’ side.

“There is no simple way for a brand to understand how customer communications through phone, chat and email influence and help grow its internet business. We’re building a cloud that gives marketers and e-commerce professionals access to these legacy technology stacks. This investment round will enable us to propel our ambitions to make internet businesses more conversational,” said Carl Holmquist, Freespee co-founder and CEO. Holmquist continued: “By working with Ventech and our other investors, new and old, we will continue to pioneer new ways to allow our customers to monitor, manage and personalise the experience of every conversation taking place through their desktop web, mobile web and apps.”

“Freespee is a groundbreaking innovator, with technology that is forging the future of enterprise software and Software as a Service (SaaS) in the conversational commerce space,” said Tero Mennander, Venture Partner at Ventech and newly-appointed board member at Freespee. “This sector is demonstrating enormous innovation globally, with Freespee at the leading edge of this wave, and we’re delighted to be joining their team.”

About Freespee

Freespee is a real time conversation cloud company. Its technology is used by marketers to monitor, manage and personalise the experience of every conversation taking place through desktop web, mobile web and mobile apps. The company was founded by Swedish software engineers in 2009, with offices in London, Paris, Barcelona and Uppsala, Sweden. Freespee’s cloud technology is used globally by brands such as Allianz, Lloyds, eBay, Bupa, Marriott Hotels and Peugeot. www.freespee.com

Ventech China announced on Nov 24, 2016 to have invested in gay social app Hornet’s Series A financing. This round of $8 million investment was led by Ventech China, followed by INspirano. The financing is mainly used to support rapid business development and user adoption across the globe. Eric Huet, managing partner of Ventech China, will join Hornet’s board of directors.

Founded in 2011 in San Francisco, Hornet is committed to strengthen gay community by providing quality social interactions with more ways to meet and engage in local gay communities. As of today, Hornet has already accumulated over 15 million registered users and 3 million MAUs, becoming the second largest gay social network worldwide. With global service coverage, Hornet is now ranking No.1 in the key markets of France, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Taiwan, while consistently expanding its sizable user base in US.

Hornet has recently acquired Vespa, the largest and most comprehensive gay city guide. With Vespa’s places (over 300 cities in 70 countries) and over 5000 events data integrated into its platform, Hornet has realized a major refresh earlier this month by launching the new Hornet Discover function. Under this new function, users can discover the secret events in the city. No matter it’s a familiar city they live in or a strange city they just travel by, users can always quickly find the offline events they like and meet new friends. Not restricted to be a simple gay social listing app, Hornet is more dedicated to create a magical adventure for gay community.

Ventech China continuously holds a positive outlook on gay community and its prosperous future. Earlier this year, Ventech China also announced a leading investment in Blued, the largest gay social app focusing on China market. Ventech China strongly believes that Hornet has great potential to win a leading position by leveraging its advantages in product design, engineering and community elements to retain user loyalty. In terms of monetization, Hornet will continue to generate revenue through subscriptions and more profitable direct sales advertising, with a future plan to cooperate with companies like Priceline and provide gay-featured ticketing services.

“We are excited to work with our new investors to further our mission and engage our community,” said Christof Wittig, CEO, Hornet. “Hornet brings interaction and an experience that builds relationships and helps form meaningful connections to local communities. We will invest heavily into making our vision for a fully connected gay community a reality.”

Eric Huet, managing partner of Ventech China who joins the company’s Board of Directors, said, “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to invest in Hornet. The platform combined with the user functionality is unparalleled. In such a short time, Hornet has claimed leader position in many markets across the globe.”

http://www.ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/hornet.png1024768ventechadminhttp://ventechvc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/logo.pngventechadmin2016-12-15 17:56:572017-08-24 12:51:47Ventech China invests in Hornet’s Series A as Lead Investor